AWS cost guides

CloudFront pricing (how to model)

Bandwidth, requests, tiers, and common pitfalls.

Cache hit rate and origin egress

Estimate origin egress from cache behavior.

CloudFront invalidation pricing

When invalidations matter and how to estimate volume.

CloudFront logs cost

Estimate log storage, retention, and query costs.

EKS pricing (what to include)

Control plane, nodes, and surrounding line items.

EKS control plane cost

When it matters and how to avoid multi-cluster cost traps.

EKS node sizing

Requests vs limits, overhead, and packing caveats.

S3 pricing (storage, requests, egress)

A practical cost model for object storage.

S3 storage classes

Archive tradeoffs: retrieval, transitions, and pitfalls.

S3 request costs

When GET/PUT/LIST becomes meaningful.

S3 data transfer costs

Egress, cross-region access, and surprises.

S3 replication pricing

Estimate replicated GB/month and extra storage.

VPC data transfer

Cross-zone/region patterns and how to estimate.

Cross-AZ transfer cost

Common sources and how to estimate GB/month.

NAT gateway cost

Why NAT bills spike and how to estimate traffic.

Estimate NAT GB processed

From metrics/flow logs or from Mbps charts.

NAT cost optimization

Reduce GB processed and avoid retry storms.

NAT vs VPC endpoints (cost)

When endpoints beat NAT GB processed and how to model it.

AWS network cost hub

NAT, endpoints/PrivateLink, and data transfer: what to model.

VPC endpoints pricing

Interface vs gateway endpoints: what to model.

PrivateLink pricing

Endpoint-hours, data processed, and pitfalls.

Estimate endpoint-hours and GB

How to estimate inputs for endpoint cost models.

VPC endpoints cost optimization

Reduce endpoint-hours, traffic, and transfer pitfalls.

PrivateLink cost optimization

Control endpoint sprawl, hours, and GB processed.

Load balancer cost

Hourly + traffic-based components to remember.

LCU/NLCU explained

How capacity units drive load balancer bills.

Estimate LCU from metrics

New connections, active connections, bytes processed, and rule evals.

ALB vs NLB cost

A practical checklist: LCU vs NLCU drivers and pitfalls.

Load balancer cost optimization

Reduce LB count and unit usage.

API Gateway pricing

Requests, transfer, and the add-ons to model.

API Gateway access logs cost

Estimate ingestion + retention and reduce log spend.

Estimate API requests/month

Convert RPS or logs into monthly volume.

API Gateway cost optimization

Cut requests, bytes, and retry-driven spikes.

CloudTrail pricing

What to model: management vs data events + downstream.

Estimate CloudTrail events

Fast methods to approximate monthly event volume.

CloudTrail cost optimization

Reduce high-volume drivers and downstream waste.

WAF pricing

ACLs, rules, requests, and downstream costs.

Estimate WAF requests

From RPS/metrics/logs, plus bot spike buffers.

WAF cost optimization

Reduce evaluated requests and rule sprawl.

WAF cost spikes during attacks

How to budget request surges and avoid surprise bills.

AWS WAF vs Cloudflare WAF cost

Compare request pricing, baselines, and logging/analytics.

ECR pricing

Storage + transfer cost model for container registries.

Estimate ECR storage

GB-month model from image size and retention.

ECR cost optimization

Retention, smaller images, fewer pulls.

Route 53 pricing

Zones, query volume, health checks.

Estimate DNS queries

From metrics/logs, plus TTL and retry drivers.

Route 53 cost optimization

Reduce query volume and zone sprawl.

Glacier/Deep Archive pricing

Storage, retrieval, and minimum duration rules.

Estimate retrieval volume

Model retrieval GB and retrieval requests.

Archive cost optimization

Reduce restores, request volume, and penalties.

SNS pricing

Publishes, deliveries, and fan-out.

Estimate SNS deliveries

Messages x subscribers x filters (plus retries).

SNS cost optimization

Reduce deliveries, retries, and alert storms.

SES pricing

Send volume, payload size, and add-ons.

Estimate email volume

Transactional + marketing, plus retry factors.

SES cost optimization

Reduce volume, retries, and payload.

KMS pricing

Key-months and request-based charges.

Estimate KMS requests

Find the biggest request drivers.

KMS cost optimization

Reduce request volume safely.

Parameter Store pricing

Advanced parameters and request-based charges.

Estimate Parameter Store calls

Model GetParameter volume and churn effects.

Parameter Store cost optimization

Reduce API calls safely with caching.

Secrets Manager pricing

Secret-month baseline and request charges.

Estimate secret API calls

Model GetSecretValue volume and churn effects.

Secrets cost optimization

Reduce API calls safely with caching.

CloudWatch Logs pricing

Ingestion, retention, and cost-control levers.

Logs Insights pricing

Scan costs, query patterns, and pitfalls.

Estimate scanned GB

Estimate Logs Insights scanned GB/day.

Logs Insights optimization

Reduce scanned GB and query frequency.

CloudWatch metrics pricing

High-cardinality pitfalls and series costs.

Estimate custom metrics

Quick methods to estimate custom metrics count.

Metrics cost optimization

Reduce cardinality, alarms, dashboards, and polling.

CloudWatch dashboards pricing

How to estimate dashboard-month costs and prevent sprawl.

Estimate metrics API requests

Dashboard refresh and polling cost models.

CloudWatch Alarms pricing

Alarm-month model and what else to include.

Estimate alarm count

Inventory alarms and avoid alarm sprawl.

Alarms cost optimization

Reduce alarm sprawl and high-res usage.

Lambda pricing (what to include)

Requests, duration x memory, and the hidden line items.

Fargate pricing (what to include)

vCPU-hours + GB-hours, plus load balancers, logs, and transfer.

Fargate vs EKS cost

A practical checklist: unit economics, overhead, and hidden line items.

Fargate vs EC2 cost

Compare compute, idle capacity, and the hidden line items.

Lambda vs Fargate cost

Compare unit economics and steady vs bursty workloads.

ECS pricing

ECS on EC2 vs ECS on Fargate: what to include.

ECS cost model (beyond compute)

The checklist: LBs, logs, NAT/egress, cross-AZ, storage.

ECS on EC2 vs Fargate cost

A practical checklist for compute, idle capacity, and hidden costs.

ECS task sizing

Pick CPU/memory and estimate task count with headroom.

ECS autoscaling cost pitfalls

Noisy signals, oscillation, retries, and hidden costs.

ECS vs EKS cost

A consistent checklist for compute, overhead, and add-ons.

Lambda cost optimization

Reduce duration, right-size memory, and cut log costs.

Concurrency and cold starts

Cost pitfalls: retries, tail latency, and incident loops.

RDS pricing (what to include)

Compute, storage, backups, I/O, and common pitfalls.

Aurora pricing (what to include)

Compute, storage, backups, and workload scenarios.

Aurora Serverless v2 pricing

Estimate ACU-hours and model peaks.

RDS vs Aurora cost

A fair checklist to compare compute, storage, and retention.

RDS backups and snapshots

How to estimate backup GB-month from churn and retention.

Estimate backup GB-month

A simple churn x retention model for budgeting.

Snapshot retention policy (cost)

Safe defaults, lifecycle, and cost traps to avoid.

RDS cost optimization

Right-size compute, control growth, and tune retention.

DynamoDB pricing (what to include)

Reads, writes, storage, and the common cost pitfalls.

DynamoDB RCU/WCU explained

Understand capacity drivers for better estimates.

DynamoDB cost optimization

Reduce request volume, item size, and retries.

EBS pricing (what to include)

Storage, performance charges, snapshots, and pitfalls.

gp2 vs gp3 cost

When gp3 saves money and how to avoid unused performance spend.

EBS snapshot cost

Estimate snapshot storage from churn and retention.

EBS gp3 IOPS and throughput

How to budget performance without overpaying.

EBS cost optimization

Right-size volumes, performance, and snapshots.

SQS pricing (what to include)

Requests, retries, Receive/Delete patterns, and pitfalls.

SQS vs SNS cost

Compare unit economics, fan-out, retries, and payload size.

Estimate SQS requests

Convert messages and retries into billable requests.

SQS cost optimization

Reduce requests per message and avoid retry storms.

AWS cost checklist

A one-page checklist for budgeting.